A highly personal book about the fate of the author’s mother and her own family.A search for traces of the past, a German-Polish historiography and a narrative, all at the same time.
Her mother was fourteen years old when she was arrested and taken to the Polish labour camp Potulice in 1945. The reason: at the age of 9, in a region that had been invaded by Hitler, she had signed a form to say that she identified herself as a German citizen. Without making premature judgement, Susanne Fritz tells a moving story of the fate of her mother and the entire family over several generations. She asks questions concerning humanity and betrayal, identity and language, always making reference to historical documents. In this way, she throws light not only on her own family history, but on the relationship between Germany and Poland during the course of two World Wars, describing all the historical upheavals involved and their effect on each individual. Susanne Fritz opens up a profound dialogue with the past – she does so because she wishes to understand how it secretly influences her own existence.
Susanne Fritz, born in 1964, lives in Freiburg. Writes short stories, novels, radio and stage plays as well as journalistic texts. She has received various prizes and scholarships for e.g. the Schriftsteller-haus Stuttgart and the Herrenhaus Edenkoben; writer-in-residence in Schaz, Tyrol. In her stage programme »WortMusik«, she performs with musicians from the genres of new music and jazz.
